Former Dartmouth Select Board member pleads guilty to hiding $2.5 million

Former Dartmouth Select Board member pleads guilty to hiding $2.5 million

The (New Bedford, Mass.) Standard-Times,

March 13, 2018

BOSTON (AP) — A former member of a Massachusetts select board who hid more than $2.5 million in cash following an embezzlement conviction case has pleaded guilty.

The Standard-Times reports that 71-year-old John George Jr. pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston to obstruction of justice.

The former Dartmouth Select Board member was sentenced to almost six years in prison in 2015 for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority. George had claimed he couldn’t pay nearly $689,000 in restitution, reporting only $28,000 in cash to court officials.

U.S. Marshals Service later discovered more than $2.5 million in cash, four luxury watches and a diamond ring in George’s safe deposit boxes.